Wake Forest coasts to dominant road win over Boston College
Wake Forest took care of business in Chestnut Hill on Saturday night, dispatching Boston College 85-63. The Deacs led by 10 at halftime and were off to the races in the second period, outscoring the Eagles by 12 in the final 20 minutes.
“I thought this was our best all-around game of the year,” Wake Forest head coach Steve Forbes said. “Especially for being on the road. From the get-go, we played really well [and] had a lot of energy.”
The Demon Deacons were led by Cameron Hildreth and Andrew Carr, who combined for 41 points on 17/26 shooting. Carr (21 points) also added 13 rebounds, notching his second double-double of the season. However, the entire group chipped in, and the team as a whole was remarkably efficient shooting the ball once again, finishing at 52% from the field.
“I thought Andrew was as good as he’s been all year,” Forbes said. “He had a great double-double. [We were] really good on offense, shared the ball. Ty ran the team, Cam scored. It wasn’t a big night for Damari [Monsanto] but other guys like Bobi Klintman [were] really good off the bench. Davion [Bradford] and Matt [Marsh] made some baskets and rebounded. It was a really good all-around game in a place that’s really hard to win.”
It was a wire-to-wire victory for Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons never trailed and held the outright lead for nearly 38 minutes of the game. The dominant display was encouraging, as Wake has struggled finishing games at times this season.
“I talked about the LSU game at halftime,” Forbes said. “Right before we went out. This [was] the same type of scenario. I thought we really came out focused in the second half. We just tried to win every media [timeout]. That’s all we talk about. Win the middle eight [minutes], win the first four, and keep stacking. We did that tonight.”
Despite the impressive offensive display, the keys to victory for Wake Forest tonight were defense and rebounding. Wake won the overall rebounding battle 37-32 and forced 15 BC turnovers that led to 23 points. Forbes broke out a 1-3-1 zone in the second half that helped open the throttle for the Deacs.
“It starts with defense,” Forbes said. “I think it won the game for us. We’re going to score, [but] we have to get stops, especially away from our bench. I thought the 1-3-1 kind of flipped the game open. I challenged our team to be physical and tough and not look for fouls. Go out there and play through contact and play basketball. And we did for 40 minutes. I’m very proud of them for that.”
With Boston College comfortably in the rearview, a daunting test awaits the Demon Deacons on Tuesday. Wake Forest will face off against the ACC-leading Clemson Tigers, who are undefeated in conference play and coming off an impressive win over No. 24 Duke. The game will be a challenge, but Forbes and his team have business — and revenge — on their minds.
“You want to play meaningful games,” Forbes said. “Here’s one. We hope we play more, but here’s one. We aren’t at the turn [of the conference schedule] yet, so I’m not going to talk about anything else, just the fact that this is a big game because they’re winning the league and they beat us. They’re good. They’re well-coached. They have good players. It’ll be a big challenge, but we’re looking forward to it.”
Tipoff for Wake Forest vs Clemson is set for 9 p.m. ET on Tuesday.
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Ben is a managing editor and lead contributing writer for Deacons Daily. Ben has a year of experience as the Sports Editor for the Old Gold & Black, and a year of experience as the publication’s print managing editor. He has a journalistic profile of over 40 published news and sports pieces for the Dayton Daily News.